The Release Artifact
The city center lay under a restless dawn.
I never thought Father would catch me…
Running into him in Basago Fief had been the last thing I expected. It felt like every piece of homework I had deliberately postponed had come crashing down on me all at once. If there was any silver lining, it was that we had not actually crossed blades.
The thought of pointing a sword at Father was something I refused even to imagine. The Empire might be my enemy, but that did not mean every soul within it was.
“…Pull yourself together.”
The worst had not come to pass, so I forced my mind back into focus. My only goal right now was to recover the Release Artifact. Preventing the war between the Empire and the Magic Kingdom could wait until after the Curse Seals were gone.
I set my heavy feet in motion and soon reached the outer wall near the fortress I had marked as my target.
Even looking at it again, the place is enormous.
Beyond the outer perimeter rose a colossal structure: a tower spiraling upward like a horn, crowned by a floating, majestic crown-shaped spire that seemed to pierce the clouds themselves—as if challenging the heavens.
That building was the national treasury of Basago Fief. As expected, a heavy patrol of soldiers circled the area.
If Erbel had been here, she would have asked whether infiltration was even possible.
More than possible.
I had served in Basago Fief before. I knew every blind spot of the interior guards, every ventilation route, even the secret passages. No matter how tight the security, to someone who already held every scrap of information the treasury was nothing more than an unlocked house with no owner home.
“…Shall we?”
Of course I had no intention of marching straight toward that towering landmark. The grand architecture was a deliberate decoy. The real treasury lay beneath my feet—deep underground within Basago Fief.
I walked the road along the wall, scanning the ground until I found it.
“There.”
A manhole cover that looked ordinary at a glance. In truth it was no drain for rainwater; it was a secret passage leading into Basago Fief itself. Only someone deeply connected to the Empire would even know it existed—which meant it lay completely outside any patrol route.
Click—.
I lifted the heavy cover. A deep shaft of pure darkness yawned open. Without hesitation I climbed down the ladder.
—Thud. When the bottom came into view I dropped the last few rungs and landed lightly. Unlike a normal sewer, the channel held not a drop of water.
“It should be around here…”
I tested the floor near the ladder with my boot until a hollow note answered.
“Hup…!”
One solid punch shattered the concrete, revealing a pristine white mechanical device—an artifact that sensed intruders. Had I taken even a few more steps, it would have blared the alarm across the entire fief.
Crash! I smashed the crystal artifact to pieces. Surprisingly, that was the entire security system for the secret passage. It might seem laughably weak for a route into the national treasury, but only because I already knew every detail. To anyone without that knowledge it would have felt impregnable.
With the last obstacle gone I broke into a run.
I tore through the labyrinthine corridors in moments and finally stopped before the door that connected directly to the treasury.
…This is the hard part.
The instant the door opened I would be in the heart of the vault. Guards stood watch there at all times; I would have to silence them before they could raise the alarm.
“….”
I drew the sword at my hip and reached for the door. Contrary to its weighty appearance it swung open with smooth ease.
“…!!”
Exactly as expected, my eyes met those of the guard on duty.
“Intrud—!”
He snatched up his communication artifact, but the word never finished.
“Ghk…”
His vocal cords severed, he could only clutch his throat as he collapsed.
“——What’s going on?”
A colleague’s voice crackled through the artifact.
“Just a sneeze. My mistake. Sorry.”
I answered in the dead man’s voice without missing a beat.
“——Understood.”
The other guard accepted it without suspicion.
“….”
The part I had dreaded most was over. All that remained was to erase the traces and slip into the ventilation shaft. I dragged the half-decapitated body back into the secret passage and hid it, then climbed into the ceiling vent. For reasons unknown the treasury’s ventilation ducts were large enough for a man to crawl through.
No need to wonder about every little detail.
The treasury had stood for more than four hundred years; hunting for explanations was pointless. From this moment my only task was to locate the Release Artifact inside.
Judging by how desperately the Empire had defended the treasury against the living weapons in my previous life, the odds were high it lay in the deepest chamber.
“——Is that a rat?”
“——Doesn’t seem so, sir.”
I moved as silently as possible through the ducts while voices drifted up from below.
“——They call this ironclad security that not even a rat can pass, yet rats stroll through in plain sight.”
“——At least there are no intruders. That’s something.”
“——Fat lot of good that does. I’m bored out of my skull.”
I held my breath, hoping for useful information.
“——Speaking of which, that artifact they moved recently…”
“——The one transferred by imperial decree?”
“——Yeah. Word is every single person in the related department got the information-purge sentence. Any idea what kind of artifact would warrant that?”
“——How would I know? Knowing would cost me my head.”
An artifact moved by imperial decree, and everyone involved erased…
…The Release Artifact.
It could be nothing else. These two would know its exact location.
I didn’t want to make noise, but…
I drew my sword and sliced through the duct floor as if it were paper, then dropped through the hole.
Thud—!
“!!!”
“!!!”
In the split second their eyes widened at the sudden intruder, I severed one man’s throat cleanly and leveled my blade at the survivor.
“Where is the artifact you just mentioned?”
“….”
He pointed straight toward the deepest chamber. I cut him down without hesitation.
Close now.
Once this was finished the children would finally be free of the curse.
“——Intruder confirmed.”
The communication artifact crackled with the alert. They had no intention of making this easy.
“…I’ll have to move fast.”
Stealth was useless now. With the breach already known I sprinted for the deepest vault.
The innermost chamber lived up to its reputation. Every artifact rested behind its own reinforced security door, further strengthened by protective magic. I had reached the heart of the treasury, yet I still could not tell which door hid the prize. There was no time to open them one by one.
I chose the crude method.
Sea-Severing Sword
I raised my blade lightly above an imaginary sea of roaring waves. The force that burst from the steel collided with itself again and again, swelling into an unstoppable chaos that swallowed everything around it.
———————————————!!!!!!
When I lowered the sword that had cleaved the sea, every ironclad security door lay in two clean halves. Priceless artifacts beyond any monetary value stood revealed. I swept my gaze across them until I found it—a solitary red gem glowing with pure, untouched radiance.
“…The Release Artifact.”
The final puzzle piece containing the complex formula needed to dismantle the Curse Seals. Finding it was not yet cause for celebration. My presence inside the treasury was already known; I had to escape Basago Fief at once.
I snatched up the Release Artifact and raced back toward the ventilation shaft I had cut open earlier.